The fall colors popped a little later than usual this year so Abby’s family lucked out during their session. We thought we’d miss prime leaf-changing but Mother Nature surprised us! Dear Abby’s session (get it? hehe!) turned out to have some of the best color of all my Fall sessions. And Abby’s gorgeous coloring was just the icing on the gold and orange cake!

Our session took place at Jetton Park on the banks of Lake Norman. I wasn’t lying about this color! I die!

Abby has had two ACL surgeries and she has the signature “sit” of a pup that has gone through that. I actually think it’s endearing how she kicks her legs out from underneath her. :)

Is it me? Or is she smiling in all of the fall goodness?

At the end of Abby’s session, we stumbled across a private little peninsula that gifted us with the most magnificent background for cuddles.

Our own little piece of heaven…

Thank you guys for such an unforgettable session! I hope you cherish your stunning canvases and Coffee Table Album!!! xoxo!

It was definitely the coldest morning of the Fall season and I was struggling through a terrible flu/double ear infection/cough-thing, but I couldn’t let this four-pack of poodles down. Their session had already been rained out once, so this brisk November morning was going to happen. And I’m so glad it did! With some delicious tea from their fur-mom, we powered through the cold. Woohoo!

First to get photographed was October Rust, aka, Rusty. This tall girl was born without a ball-and-socket joint in her front leg. She has a little limp but gets by just fine! She loves to explore her big backyard and find sticks to run around with and chew on.

Another one of Rusty’s favorite activities is to wrestle with her sister, September Sun (on the right, below).

September Sun, aka Sunny, is obsessed with tennis balls and her frisbee. As long as I had either one of those handy, I had her undivided attention!

After the big girls, we photographed Lilith. This little toy Poodle was found abandoned in Charlotte but has settled in perfectly in her Poodle-filled home. She’s now obsessed with squeakies and will rip apart any toy to get to them.

Lastly, we photographed Chippendale…Chip, for short. This little guy was most likely a puppy mill dog. He isn’t really sure how to act like a dog and certainly hadn’t seen grass before. He walks around with his head down…as if he is constrained by a cage. Luckily, he’s been rescued and is doing wonderfully! He’s getting more and more adventurous in his yard and even gets zoomies from time to time! Yay for happy endings!

I was lucky enough to catch him in zoomie-mode! Eeeeek!!!

It was a real honor photographing this large pack! Kuddos to their humans for being so loving and kindhearted. This is why I love my clients. Dog lovers are a-okay in my book!

angela -OMG – what amazing pictures, Sarah! We cannot believe the shots you were able to get, especially with Chip!! Love, Love Love them all!! (now, to decide which ones we want to hang on the walls!) :)

Ok. Ok. Ok. I’m so freakin excited to share our latest renovation with everyone!!!! I know I said this when I shared our guest bedroom reno…this has nothing to do with pet photography. Well, actually, Teton (surprise!!!) is in some of these pictures. He doesn’t leave my side. So there. Pet photography! ;)

To give you an idea of the dining room/kitchen space when we moved in, I screen-grabbed these images from the listing. As you can see, we had very little storage, horrible and outdated appliances (actually, the refrigerator didn’t work), and gross, worn out cabinets (luckily you can’t see the sticky grime that was permanently attached to them). We knew before we bought the place that we were going to redo the kitchen pretty quickly.

This was a slow process that pretty much started as soon as we moved in. As I mentioned, the fridge, aka the big black monster, didn’t work so it was replaced right away. While we waited over a week for delivery, we had to use a cooler filled with ice. It was great! Haha! We went with a counter-depth fridge to give us more walking space.

The next thing we did was add a wall of cabinets in the dining area. We went from a 2,600 sq ft house to a 1,026 sq ft condo so we needed to add quite a bit of storage. This serves as our pantry and holds random stuff like luggage, small appliances, the ironing board, vacuum, and even my office. Yes, my office. When you live in a small space, everything has to do double duty! My computer fits nicely inside the cabinet on the left. My mouse and keyboard are on a slide-out shelf and I just pull up a chair from the dining room table during working hours. After the workday is complete, it all gets tucked away nice and neat!

The kitchen was done in phases. The first phase was the back wall. We had a great time removing the granite counters…hahaha…all by ourselves. Tearing out the glass tile was also a fun time! ;) The best part was removing the cabinets and reconfiguring to correct some of the storage issues. We added a full-size cabinet above the fridge as well as huge drawers below the cooktop.

The island was a very, very huge challenge. I wanted it to look free floating without seeing the pony wall that was originally there. However, if we removed the pony wall, floors were going to be missing. Since those weren’t going to be redone for quite some time, we had to leave most of it. We removed one of the pony wall sides and were able to put in bigger cabinets…drawers actually. The bigger cabinetry covered up the missing floors. Yippee! We wrapped the island in a waterfall quartz countertop and added a cover panel on the bar side. My dreams of having a waterfall counter were finally fulfilled (after many confused looks)!!!

We put in a new sink and faucet!!!! Gosh. I wish I had a better before picture of what was there. It was horrible. I’m so obsessed with the new industrial-looking combo.

Oh, and on the right you can see the new glass subway tile, drawers, and convection microwave. And no, we don’t have an oven. None of these units do. We originally thought we’d add one, but, after living a year without one, the convection microwave was really all we needed. So we decided just to upgrade ours. It’s pretty cool living in a small space and really sitting down and analyzing what you truly need. :)

The little touches like paint, lighting, curtains, etc were added over the past year of living here. Oh, and a full-size dishwasher. We had a mini version when we moved in and that was not something we could compromise on.

And a few before-and-afters…

One of the things we love most about our new place is all of the natural light from the wall of windows. That’s my favorite tree in the whole wide world out there…Lief, a Japanese Maple. She gives us privacy and a relaxing view with amazing color. I feel that the new design frames her nicely. :)

Escher, Petey and Odin are a trio of amazing rescued pups with a mom that has a heart of gold. Her love for dogs, friends, and family runs deep. So much so, in fact, a special someone (or someones?) gifted her with a session for her three babies…(I will never tell!). Just their special way of saying thanks for being such a wonderful person and furmom. :)

We spent a lovely evening in and around their Mount Holly neighborhood. The leaves were just past prime but we still succeeded in finding some wonderful color and a gorgeous field (that I fell in love with).

I introduce Petey, the shy but so, so sweet white Boxer/Hound/Bulldog mix; Odin, the little Chi/Jack Russell mix that loves his big brothers; and Escher, the goofy big Dane/Lab/Boxer guy that was our comic relief. :)

This could possibly be one of my favorite kissy picture. We were under high-tension power-lines with houses in the background, but at the right angle, these two look like the only ones around for miles. Love, love, love.

ABOUT ME

My name is Sarah McGraw and I photograph modern images for posh pets in the Charlotte, NC area. I am a full-time professional pet photographer and I specialize in fresh, natural, candid-style dog, cat, horse and pet portraits taken on-location and in the studio.